jtn&mflptfa'Trf
fl '"
. '(
6
The Commoner
.VOLUME 6, NUMBER 29
! Wt '
iptu
'' '-
1- I
". nv
1 jt iX
1 vv
(
.2 1 ! t
1 li W.I
t
1
'N
;ii
..hit
'!'J
Mi
DK)
(S
I
1;
,.IOJ
m
r
I'M'
IP MM
The Commoner
ISSUED WEEKLY
Editor and Proprietor.
Riciiahd L. MirrcALKB
Associate Editor.
OUAULI29 W. BltTAK
Publisher.
Editorial Rooms and Business
Onice 824-330 So. 12th Street.
Entered &t tho rostofllco at Lincoln, Nebraska, as second
class mail matter.
One Year $1.00 Three Month. 25o
. soo issft.gssirK;";flo
In Clubs of 5 or more Foreign PosUtfe 52o Ex
por Year 75e r. p
SUBSCRIPTIONS can be sent direct to Tho Com
moner. Thoy can also bo sent through newspapers
which have advertiacd a clubbing rate, or through local
agents, where sub-agents have been appointed. All
remittances should bo sent by postofllco money order,
express order, or by bank draft on New York or
Chicago. Do not send individual checks, stamps or
monoy. , , ,
DISCONTINVANCES.-It is found that a largo majori
ty of our subscribers prefer not to have their subscriptions
interrupted and their flics broken In case they fall to remit
before expiration. It is therefore assumed that continuance
is desired unless subscribers order discontinuance either
when subficribinc or at any time during the year. PRlJ.Si.N-T-ATION
COPIES: Many persons subscribe for friends, in
tending that the paper shall stop at the end of the year. II
instructions are given to this effect they will receive atten
tion at the proper time. u-...
RENEWALS. Tho date on your wrapper snowa
when your subscription will expire. Thus, Jan. 31, 06,
mean? that paj'inent has been recoived to and Includ
ing' t o last issue of January, 190G. Two weeks aro
required after motley has been received beforo the
date on wrapper can bo changed.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS. Subscribers requesting a
change of address must glvo OLD as well as the N13W
address.
ADVERTISING rates furnished upon application.
Address all communications to
THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Nob
self.
The czar is something of a "standpatter" him-
The Pittsburg date lines are good ones to
miss in your perusal of the daily papers.
In the apportionment pf Carnegie hero medals
the base "ball- umpires should not be overlooked.
To the credit of- Russell Sage be it said that
he did not spend money like a Pittsburg millionaire.
Mr. Rockefeller is out on $1,000 bail. It is
reported that he had no difficulty in securing the
hail bond.
The way to win battles, either political or
between armed armies, is to organize first and
then fight.
Russell Sage boasted that he never took a va
cation. He is on one now, and he. didn't take
anything elBe, either.
The czar promised representative govern
ment but the czar seems to be what the children
oall "an Injun giver."
A democratic congress elected this fall will
be a good start towards the election of a demo
cratic president in 1908.
Stolypin is the name of the latest Russian
official to undertake the cabinet business. The
grand dukes stole about everything else.
Undo Joe Cannon deprecating legislation in
the interests of a class is another spectacle cal
culated to make the hot weather more endurable.
Russell Sage's fortune was considerably less
tnan estimated by guessers before his death. But
It was much greater than the assessor estimat
eu it.
flior??rlGrayr,has soner fl8hns," says a special
dispatch from Canada. But his word about the
big Ones that erot n.wnv will ho ,..ti.
m.: ,, . . - -v - w wwnii iiu mure
vtnan that of an ordinary newspaper man who
w "r A4g3
Toledo is making mmo Hio 1.1.1
fSSJ' addition to sending a bunch of ice
S f magnates t0, ?U Toledo failed to exhaust
" al bu ldinPg rP fr a Site for a new fed'
Chairman Sherman figures that a dollar
ap ece from every man who voted for Roosevelt
will put upwards of $7,000,000 in the g. o p con
gressional campaign fund. The big trusts' may
be depended upon to make up the average
" Standpatism " The True "Conservatism"
The Chicago Record-Herald recently and
other papers also repeated a remark accredited
to a well known counsel of the Standard Oil, and
referring to Mr. Bryan, and to the effect that his
conservatism was pronounced as that "beside the
present occupant of the White House." The
Record-Herald then proceeds to distinguish, be
tween good and bad monopolies in the usual word
stringing, phrase mongering way, and, referring
to Mr. Bryan's reputed statement that "you might
as well attempt to regulate burglary," takes him
to task for opposing all monopoly. Of course we
understand the moralization that prompts the de
ductions. Dowieism were most reasonable, com
mendable, if it paid and as long as it paid; but
when Dowie is even thought to be bankrupt the
conservative press ridicules him to scorn. In the
present consideration of the question. I am in
clined to think that the mental reservation of
the Record-Herald is the tariff. That, I think, is
the "bug under the chip."
Such monopolies as fatten upon the law are
held to be virtuous sinners, and if Mr. Bryan
opposes monopolies that grow upon such oppor
tunities he is sinful in his virtue. The Record
Herald may be set down as conservative in the
true American sense, particularly as applied to
politics. Conserve means to serve with; conserv
ative that which or those who serve with?
Serves with what? Who? Money! A political
conservative is one who serves with money and
is governed by the influence of money; and I
defy any living man to give a conservative con
struction to any question now before the Ameri
can people that will not sourtd in dollars and
cents! Indeed, that is almost the only construc
tion possible for the use of that word, and for
the reason that the purpose of conservatism is
to oppose any and all interference with condi
tions that bear upon our commercialism or finan
cial methods and purposes.
Conservatism would not interfere with the
present combining methods of the railroads and
coal companies; the absorbing legerdemain of tax
avoiding Standard Oil; nor would it have disturbed
'the management of life insurance -companies in
the plundering; and it would draw the dark cloak
of opportunity over the nastiness of the beef
trust; as, also, sanction as, a blessing the Armour
private car monopoly and commend the lying and
thieving genius that determines the psycological
moment of opportunity to make a splendid haul
a la bank burglary.
The Record-Herald was one of the Chicago
papers that denied the truth of many of the
charges against the' beef trust, and yet, when
the Beveridge amendment wag brought to light,
it was one that said that the enforcement of the
amendment would make Chicago a dumping
ground for diseased carcasses never dreaming
that its petulant cry convicted the beef trust of
every allegation against it. If the charges made
were not true the inspection, as per the Beve
ridge amendment, would only confirm Mr. Armour
in his statements in the Saturday Evening Post,
that the meat carcasses were not diseased, but
were good and wholesome.
The insidious methods of "captains of in
dustry" are not to be uncovered nor interferred
with, and for the reason that a disturbance of
their monopoly, -in the control of affairs, might
occasion a distemper that eventually might de
prive them of such control. In other words, the
Record-Herald says: "Everybody 'stand pat' in
everything!" It said that the "people properly
rejoice and applaud" when the United States
government employs the law to surpress "the
securities company." No man with as much gray
matter in his head as might be constructed from
a teaspoonful of wet ashes, believes that the
securities company was suppressed, so far as
the accomplishing of the purpose of Messrs. Hill
and Harriman are concerned, though it may have
closed the door to future contemplated plunder
ing. The Record-Herald either knows this, or it
does not. If it does, why does it practice false
hood? If notwell, better give the office boy a
chance. Further, it says: "Society will not ex
terminate monopoly." How silly such a state
mentfor how can It be proved? Again, "It will
try (sic!) to control it and correct its evil3 while
preserving its great economic advantages."
What are its evils? Who shall determine its
economic advantages? And if society "will try
to control it," may not society go the full length
of its right and destroy monopoly? But what
is society? The "interests?" The "system?"
.-Who constitute society in the sense .of the term
as used by the Record-Herald? Does it mean our
citizenship? Or our American civilization? Or
our "captains of industry" and their ramifyW
influence? Or does it mean the influential con
servatives sometimes called the "safe and sane?"
It says also: "The monopoly which prospers on
account of merit and good service is a positive
advantage." ,
I will venture the assertion that if the in
fluence that superinduced that editorial were
summoned to answer the question "What monop
olies in America prosper on account of merit and
good service?" the answer would sneeringly in
elude the most lawless, corrupt and destructive
monopolies that the people have cried out against,
And such answer would be in vulgar assurance
of method that, though grossly indecent, would
be considered a perfect justification of its
brutality.
The conservative has never been other than
a server-with-money, in our politics, and tho
stand pat" theory of our tariff is a better illus
tration of conservatism than the term itself. In
deed, "standpatism" is the true "conservatism"
though the expression be made to fit the party
whose patriotism is always in conjuctive relation
with, an appropriation. Also, the conservative is
a coward.
Unless Upton Sinclair had come upon the
scene the people of this great government could
have gone on eating carrion and putrid food for
all the Washington administration knew. There
was no intention to "run amuck."
Commenting upon the decision of the United
States supreme court in Haddock vs. Haddock,
the celebrated divorce decision, Prof. Beale, in
the Harvard Law Review for June, says "it is
opposed to reason, to authority, and to morality."
An editorial in the New York Law Journal says:
" the action of the majority of the court
has been unanimously disapproved as contrary to
proper principles of law and - considerations of
public expediency." Law Notes concludes an
editorial, " it seems quite probable
that the decision will be directly over
ruled upon a change in the personnel of the
bench." If such criticisms of the supreme court
continue, -the "anarchists" of '96 may leave orders
for halos and claim the veneration paid to mar
tyrs. However, 'tis a good sign.
The railroads have told the interstate com
merce commission that to give a. schedule of rates
between all shipping points is practically impos
sible. Is it not as easy to give the rates to the
commission as to give them to a shipper? If a
shipper wants to ship to a hundred different points
would he not be promptly furnished with the
rates? Is it more difficult to give the same in
formation to the commission? Can not the rail
roads each and all list their rates as well for
the commission as they do for their own guid
ance? If once given, can not any amendment or
change in the rates, or addition of points, be given
the commission as easily as the shipper?
W. S. RYAN.
Indianapolis, In'd.
"ABSENT TREATMENT"
A great many people applauded when the war
rant for the arrest of John D. Rockefeller was
issued 'by the probate court at Findlay, Ohio.
Rockefeller was charged with violating the anti
trust laws of the state and we were told that
the sheriff would welcome him at the pier on his
return from Europe. But attorneys for Rocke
feller appeared in the Ohio court and obtained
permission to enter Rockefeller's appearance.
One Findlay dispatch says: "Attorney James
O. Troup on behalf of John D. Rockefeller for
mally waived service of the warrant and entered
his (Rockefeller's) appearance in court, and gave
bond in. the sum of $1,000 for Rockefeller's ap
pearance Tuesday, September 4. At the same time
' a motion to quash the information was filed and
that motion will be heard later."
There are many men against whom com
plaints have been filed, who would very gladly
"waive- service of the warrant." This is a sort
of "absent treatment" in criminal proceedings
and' will certainly commend itself to the law
breaking class.
If Rockefeller, or any other trust magnate,
should ever be -sentenced -to -prison, we 'have no
doubt he would -be quite willing -to nvaive service
in jail.
J-
-jwWBfr
d fa A -.
V InmV i